Atrix 4G4G Lapdock ReviewAccessories

Updated: It's been over a year now and I came across somethings I wanted to share. They are in red. I'm still loving my dock and use it daily for work and personal use.

So I waited for the price to drop below $200, before I purchased. I bought a refurbished unit for $175. (I heard you can by them for as low as $100 now.) I must say that I am really impressed with this Lapdock and it far exceeded my expectations. I am running Gingerbread with Firefox 4.0. (It is fast at loading pages.) I don't own any mobile devices like a tablet, laptop, ipad, etc. Just my Atrix.

It meets all of my needs and more. You don't need the 4G tethering plan to use Firefox. You can use wifi and when on the go, just use the browser app, within the mobile view. (I kept my unlimited data plan.) I have had mine for about a month now and still learning how to use it and new tricks. Since there is no users manual, as to all of the features, you will have to discover them by playing around with it, forums like this, trial and error. So here are the pros and cons I have discovered so far.

Pros:

1) Netbook experience, but has limitations.

2) You have complete access of your phone's functions and apps within the mobile view.

3) If you have a word processing app on your phone, you can create/view and edit: PDF, excel, word documents and powerpoint presentations. (Even though there are no spell check for android any of the word processing apps, you can still use the spell check/word suggestion, from the on screen keyboard, while using the quarty keyboard.) You have to right click on the mouse to get the dialog box and choose multitouch keyboard and then just minimize the on screen keyboard.

Edited: Forgot to mention this works for cloud storage as well. Don't have the tethering plan, just us the mobile window to access your cloud stored documents.

4) You can access the internet thru the mobile or webtop view. (Don't need a tethering plan.)
Edited: You can access webtop/Firefox using wifi.

5) You can access all of your videos, pictures and documents in both mobile and webtop view.

6) You can save movies to an SD card or flash drive and play them with in the mobile or webtop view. (There is some choppiness, but its not bad.) The bigger the viewing window, the chopper it is. This works for movies rented from the android market too.

Edited: When you use the webtop entertainment center to playback movies, it plays much better with with almost no lag. You can even play movies in the mobile window and work in a webtop window at the same time.

7) You can hook up a USB or cable mouse.

8) The lapdock charges your phone really fast, when docked. (It doesn't matter if the lapdock is plugged into an outlet or not.) You can easily get 2 full charges on your phone if your phone is down to 30% battery, if the lapdock is fully charged.

9) The key board is really nice and spacious. Easy to type on once you get use to it. Has a lot of quick function keys like: Vol., screen brightness, etc.

10) The mouse pad is easy to use, really big, can be turned off and has two function buttons. (Its not multitouch, but you can double tap to scroll.)

11) Its very lightweight, thin and easy to carry around.

Edited: I bought the Lapdock carring case which only holds the lapdock only, but is very stylish and protects the lapdock very well. (I have a laptop bag that I use on a regular bases to carry everything I use with the lapdock.)

12) You can set up your webtop desktop background to whatever you want and can customize the dock bar with mobile apps and web apps/shortcuts.

13) In the Firefox window, you can customize it how you like and can choose your default home page. (I have mine set to Google.)

Edited: Didn't know this at first, but you can use Firefoxadd-ons as well as themes for your Firefox windows. Its really cool how you can customize it how you like. I have a notepad and calculator add-on that you can use even when not on wifi.I even have weatherbug to keep up with local weather.

14) You forget your using your phone to power the lapdock.

15) All of your internet bookmarks show up in Firefox as well as the mobile browser. (I doesn't matter if you created them in either or.)

Edited: I should have mentioned this only work with the stock browser only. I use Dolphin Beta now and I had to copy the Firefox bookmarks to the Dolphin browser under its settings.

16) Playing your MP3's or streaming music, sounds pretty good thru the lapdock speakers. (You can use mobile and webtop view.)

17) Multitasking is really easy in both the mobile and webtop view.

18) You can answer and make phone calls. Send text and e-mail, etc.

19) You can enlarge mobile and webtop view to take up the whole screen or resize windows as you see fit. (Just like on a windows PC.)

20) File management is really easy and you can view your pictures in list or thumbnail view.

21) You can still access all apps in airplane mode that doesn't require a data connection. (I used my lapdock while on a plane and the experience was really nice.) I had all my music and movies on SD cards to listen to and watch.

22) Most games play just as good as it does when using the phones screen. (Racing games or any that use the accelerometer, require you to tilt the lapdock.)

23) The battery life is 8 hrs on full charge. (Will be less, depending on how low the Atrix Is, video play back and what you are doing.) It definitely will last longer then any laptop, netbook or tablet.

24) Over 6 ft. Charging plug.

25) You have a tab view in both mobile and webtop view. (Much easier and faster to move around apps.)

26) User interface is really nice and surpasses some netbooks and laptops functions. (Scrolling view of all open windows with in webtop.)

27) Only have to carry around your phone and lapdock.

28) Screen is beautiful, bright and sharp.

Edited: The brighter the screen, the faster it drains the battery.

29) Flash video and playback streams nice with no lag or choppiness.

30) You can use the Lapdock as a standard dock as well with the lid closed.
31) You can do a WebEx and conference call at the same time. (I use a set of bluetooth headphones for privacy.) Works great.

Cons

1) Dock is useless without the Atrix 4G and only works with the Atrix 4G.

2) It will lag, if you have to many apps or website tabs open at one time.

3) Video play back is alittle laggy, when viewing full screen.
(Doesn't matter if it was saved to SD card or streaming.)

Edited: Use the webtop entertainment app to playback movies for a much better viewing experience.

4) No way to view powerpoint presentations on a view screen.

5) Can't add apps to webtop desktop.

6) No touch screen.

7) The screen has a high gloss to it and requires an anti-glare screen protector. I found one on Amazon and it works great. (Only $6)

8) Found out that webtop will not launch, if you are below 1GB of internal memory and if your app space is below 250 MB. (The second might not matter, but the first does)

So, I hope I was able to help you in deciding if this lapdock is for you or not. You wanna know something else, I typed up this review on it and it was cool.

Webtop/Firefox usage requires 4gb tethering data plan. They could have sold tons more of these without this requirement.
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It'd be great if they'd open up this architecture a little more. I am left wondering what if this is dead-end development or will continue to be enhanced.

Click to expand...

Your right about that. I waited so long because of the price, $400 for nothing but a screen, keboard and battery. (I was going to buy a netbook.) Then having to lose my unlimited data plan for the 4GB tethering plan, which you only have 2 GB for tethering and 2 GB regular data. (It was $15 more then what I'm paying for my unlimited plan.) They really messed up a really cool feature, by over pricing the Lapdock and as you said, saying you needed the 4GB tethering plan, when you really didn't since you could use wifi. (To which a lot of people bought into that.)

I recently got the original Lapdock for the Motorola Atrix 4G (MB860) and when I connect the phone to the back ports the mobile view is frozen and I am unable to use the phone. I can use firefox and file manager but not the mobile view itself.

My phone was rooted, and I did a factory reset, that didn't work. So I unrooted the phone and it still does not work.

Why do you need tethrering? The Atrix can surf the net on it's own without tethering- I thought this was just adding a bigger scren and keyboard. Or is it only Firefox that requires thering? Could you still use the regular Android browser to view the internet?

Why do you need tethrering? The Atrix can surf the net on it's own without tethering- I thought this was just adding a bigger scren and keyboard. Or is it only Firefox that requires thering? Could you still use the regular Android browser to view the internet?

Click to expand...

You are correct. You need tethering to use the Firefox browser only. You can use the mobile browser, within the mobile view, to surf the net. The mobile browser works just fine.

When the Atrix gets the update to Ice Cream Sandwich it will include Webtop 3.0 which does away with the Firefox browser. There are some leaks on youtube now. It appears to be much faster and stable. I wonder if AT&T will still require tethering.